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This form is rarely used, except in
somewhat dialects, perhaps for ambiguous social relationships, such as with
tradesmen of low status, fairly good friends of equal status, and in general
where one would not want to be either particularly respectful or
disrespectful. Westerners may find it more comfortable to use this form where
Tamilians would use the non-polite form, but it is rare. Formally, this
category is realized as a suffix -Ë£ um added to the verb-stem (sg.
non-pol. form). Examples: ؽÔ࣠poodum `give, serve';
ÂÔõ´Õ¡Ø´Ôç£ vaangikoorum `take along'. If the verb-stem ends in a
vowel, as in the previous form, a morphophonemic -¯- r is inserted
between the vowel and the -Ë£ um suffix.
Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996